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Is the Cold War coming back? Trump will withdraw from the nuclear treaty with Russia

The treaty agreed in 1987 between the Soviet Union and the United States, marked a great step for the Cold War. However, Trump announced that he will retire

Is the Cold War coming back? Trump will withdraw from the nuclear treaty with Russia

In a video published by El País of Spain, Donald Trump announced that he will abandon the nuclear treaty signed with the former Soviet Union, now Russia.

Leer en español: ¿Vuelve la Guerra Fría? Trump se retirará del tratado nuclear con Rusia

Among his arguments, he explains that "Russia has been violating the agreement. He has been violating it for many years." He also asks "why did not President Barack Obama negotiate or withdraw from the nuclear treaty?" Referring to  2014 when Obama, as reported by the BBC, "accused Russia of violating the Treaty of IntermedIntermediate-Range Forces (INF) after allegedly testing a cruise missile launched from the ground."

At that time, there was no, for Trump, negotiation with Russia or the intention of Obama to leave the INF. As the BBC points out, Obama "chose not to withdraw from the treaty under pressure from European leaders, who said such a move could restart an arms race."

"We are going to abandon it, unless Russia and China come to us and tell us not to develop those weapons," Trump said. But why is the nuclear treaty between Russia and the US so important? This tells the story:

In the panorama of the Cold War, the distance between the US and the Soviet Union was growing. It was feared that an armed conflict between the two powers could happen. But in that context, no one, as in past wars, would win. For one reason: the war would be nuclear and massive destruction, putting life on the earth at risk.

In addition, the arms race of the USSR and the United States, since the end of the Second World War, has turned towards one factor: increasing the capacity to destroy their weapons. For this reason, nuclear bombs, for the decade of the 80s, were much more powerful than those used indiscriminately and without humanity on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Given the uncertainty experienced in those years, the President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, pledged his efforts to achieve a rapprochement with his counterpart in the US, Ronald Reagan. He was looking for an agreement at all costs: sign with the United States. a treaty for the disarmament of short and medium-range nuclear missiles.

And so it happened. The fact was historical. Before the media around the world, the leaders of both powers signed the agreement called Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces. The event happened in 1987 and put an end to the arms race between both nations, which kept the Cold War alive.

Since that time, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan gave a respite to the existence of life on earth, avoiding a nuclear military confrontation. According to BBC Mundo, for 1991, 2,700 missiles were destroyed and each country verified that there were no related weapons.

However, those efforts to keep peace and life on earth stable will go to waste with Donald Trump's announcement to withdraw from the 1987 nuclear treaty with the USSR (Russia). If so, the Cold War returns and the risk of a nuclear war.

 

Russia responds to Trump

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said in a statement to the Russian news agency Tass that "it would be a very dangerous step that, I am sure, will not be endorsed by the international community, but will result in convictions." "The treaty is significant for international security and security in the field of nuclear weapons, for the maintenance of strategic stability," he added to Tass.

In another pronouncement to the news media, RIA Novosti warned that if the US continues acting "awkwardly", withdrawing from the INF, "we will have no choice but to take retaliatory measures, including military technology."

However, Russia has not recognized that violated the treaty, because as the BBC tells, Russia did not comply with the agreement to create the nuclear missile Novator 9M729 medium-range, which would attain in a short time to all countries that make up NATO , among them Colombia as the only Latin country that makes it up.

 

A more dangerous panorama for humanity

The US attitude towards the INF treaty is dangerous if one takes IGNORE INTO account that currently, according to DW, nuclear weapons are no longer only in the power of Russia and the US. but ready for use by countries like France, the United Kingdom, China and North Korea.

For this reason, a new scenario of the Cold War, caused by the departure of the United States. of INF leaves a panorama full of uncertainty for peace and life on earth.

"Do not they really understand what this could lead to in Washington? Given this situation, the UN and the Security Council must be summoned, because Trump's decision affects the whole world" , are the words of Mikhail Gorbachev to Russian media, which includes The World of Spain.

 

LatinAmerican Post | Edwin Guerrero Nova

Translated from: '¿Vuelve la Guerra Fría? Trump se retirará del tratado nuclear con Rusia'

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